Murray town board approves budget

Officials in the Town of Murray approved their 2003 budget at a recent board meeting.

The spending plan calls for a tax increase of seven cents for taxpayers inside village limits and a 12.5 cent tax increase for taxpayers outside village limits. Supervisor Henry Lehning said the figures, per thousand of assessed value were: $2.92 for taxpayers inside and $4.39 for taxpayers outside the village limits.

"On an $80,000 house, inside the village limits, a taxpayer would see a total increase of $5.60 per year," he explained, adding that the total tax increase for a taxpayer outside the village limits would be $10.15 for the upcoming year.

Lehning said the budget process was a good one. "We probably could have taken a few cents off the tax rate by using the fund balance," he said. "But with the uncertainty of the state budget and tax revenue money we didn't want to lower the fund balance to an unreasonable amount."

If money does come through from the state and from tax revenues, Lehning said it would be a big help on next year's (2004) budget process.

There was not one big ticket item that contributed to the increase in tax rates, he said. "The biggest increase is from the increase in the money we are spending on zoning, planning and code enforcement," he said.